(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to pneumatic tires for heavy vehicles. More particularly, the invention relates to pneumatic tires for trucks and buses as well as pneumatic tires for construction vehicles which are to be used on roads liable to cause exterior damages, such as bad roads or construction sites.
(2) Related Art Statement
As to heavy vehicle pneumatic tires to be used on roads liable to cause exterior damages, such as bad roads or construction sites, durability is particularly important as their performance. In order to improve durability, it is indispensable to improve cut resistance, cut-penetrating resistance, heat generation resistance and wear resistance of the tread. In order to improve the cut resistance and the cut-penetrating resistance of the tread, it is generally considered advisable to increase hardness of rubber. Therefore, hardness of the rubber has been conventionally increased by adding carbon black at a highly filled degree or by enhancing a crosslinked density through increasing an amount of sulfur.
However, when carbon black is added at a highly filled degree or the amount of sulfur is increased, elongation of the rubber is decreased. In this case, if the tread is cut at an angle near in parallel to the road, a phenomenon generally called pitching that a rubber piece is peeled from the tread due to growth of the cut is likely to occur. For this reason, wear resistance is deteriorated, and durability cannot be assured for a long time.
Under the circumstances, in order to increase hardness of rubber while maintaining elongation of the rubber, there have been proposed many technical countermeasures. For example, a thermoplastic resin is blended into a rubber composition. However, these countermeasures suffered deterioration in a heat generation characteristic, and could not afford intrinsic durability. Thus, it is an actual situation that sufficient effects could not be necessarily obtained by these countermeasures.